alright, so i've seen on here that, 1: your ears need, at the minimum, 6-8 weeks to heal enough to be able to safely stretch to the next size. and 2: that it's safe to stretch to the next size when you can feel no pain when trying to stretch. i understand it depends on the person, but is it pretty safe to say that your ears are ready when you can stretch without feeling any pain at all when doing so?

It is my personal opinion that you wait the reccomended times and THEN if you feel pain/resistance you wait longer. If you don't feel pain that isn't an excuse to stretch too fast, as everyone's pain threshold is different. You need to take your own personal pain threshold into consideration and be extra careful not to force anything.

The reason you need to wait is because your ear needs to build collagen and relax at each size, otherwise your fistula is constantly under pressure and is not getting good circulation and you may encounter thin spots.